Griffin Canning is the 2nd Angels pitcher to win a Gold Glove Award

Griffin Canning joined a select group in Angels history, one of only two pitchers in 60 years as a franchise to win a Gold Glove Award. Canning won the 2020 American League Gold Glove at pitcher on Tuesday.

Canning is the first Angels pitcher to win baseball’s top fielding honor since Mark Langston, who captured five consecutive Gold Glove awards from 1991-95.

The second-year pitcher, drafted in the second round out of UCLA in 2017, tied with Nathan Eovaldi for the American League lead among pitchers with three Defensive Runs Saved. That was one of five statistics that comprise the Sabermetric Defensive Index (SDI), which is usually a 25-percent component in determining the Gold Glove awards, along with the other 75 percent from managers and coaches voting.

But in 2020, with the 60-game MLB schedule split into regions, and managers not seeing two thirds of the league, the Gold Gloves were determined solely by the stats.

The folks at SABR released the information at every position, and Canning’s composite number of 1.4 outpaced Kenta Maeda of the Twins (1.0) and Zach Plesac of the Indians (1.0).

Just three years ago as a junior at UCLA, Canning was named to the ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove team as the top fielding pitcher in college baseball. Those college Gold Gloves have been awarded since 2010, and Canning is the first player to win both a college and major league Gold Glove.

Canning is the first Angel at any position to win the Gold Glove since shortstop Andrelton Simmons in 2018. Second baseman Ian Kinsler also won a Gold Glove that season, but was traded to the Red Sox at the end of July. The only Angels Gold Glove winner younger than the 24-year-old Canning was first baseman Jim Spencer, who captured the honor in 1970.